Finding ‘Fraser’: Fun with Christmas decor

December 25, 2013

I know, I know, it's a sickness. But this is the first time in the past four years that I am living in an actual home-y apartment instead of the cinder block prison known as a dorm room, so I had to indulge.

About two weeks before Thanksgiving, my roommate and I were innocently strolling into Wegman's when we spotted the miniature trees lining the sidewalk. Instinctively, we inspected each and decided that one of the Fraser Furs had to come home with us.

Before this, I'd never bought a grocery store tree, and they were fairly large, so I asked an employee how one would go about purchasing one of the trees on the sidewalk. She looked at me like I'd just walked out of an insane asylum, but politely replied that I just had to bring it inside and take it through a check-out line.

So, my roommate grabbed the tree and we entered the nearest line, now earning stares from other customers. But we didn't care; victory was ours!

We took little Fraser (as we've aptly, albeit not very creatively, named our tree) home and set about kidnapping our third roommate and venturing out for decorating supplies.

The three of us pilaged the shelves of the Dollar Tree and came up with bulbs, various ornaments, bows and window clings. We stopped at K-Mart to get some battery-powered lights and headed home with our haul.

Our apartment looks great and perfectly Christmas-y. We dressed Fraser beautifully and dug out old Christmas decorations to add a level of cheer to the entire space. We have tinsel snaking its way up our stair railing, stockings hung by the window with care (and mine sporting photos of actors Brad Garrett and Pierce Brosnan, courtesy of my roommate), cute Christmas wall hangings and windows with cartoon-y Santas and reindeer.

Christmas is my favorite holiday, so I've enjoyed the extended stay in the Christmas spirit zone. Maybe to avoid stepping on Thanksgiving's toes next year, we'll add turkey decor to the mix.

Irwin is a Sun-Gazette correspondent and can be reached at life@sunga zette.com.